Episode Details

How to Pray When You’ve Sinned

Remsen Bible Fellowship, Psalm 51, 09/04/2022

The following is an AI generated transcript, not a manuscript.

And Father, again, as we turn to your word now, would you open our eyes to behold both the horrific things we would see in ourselves and the beauty of what were revealed of you, what was shown of you in your word. We ask these things in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

If you want to take your Bibles and turn, we’re going to be in Psalm 51 this morning. Psalm 51.

One of the great dangers as a human being is to want to hide our sin. We love living in the darkness, John 3 says, because our deeds are evil. And Satan, who is the prince of darkness, and Ephesians 2 says he is the prince of the power of the air, thus he’s the god of this world, He loves that. He loves the darkness and those who are born into his reign, which is all of us. We love the darkness rather than the light because our deeds are evil. But God sometimes in his mercy will shine a spotlight into the darkness. He’ll shine a spotlight on our sin so that even if we’re trying to run, even if we’re trying to hide it, He makes it unmistakably clear that this is who we are and this is where we’re at. We are sinners without hope. We are sinners lost in our sin. We are sinners condemned under his righteous decree.

That’s what God did for David in 2 Samuel. We’ve looked the last two weeks at 2 Samuel 11 and 12, and in chapter 11, David says, sees Bathsheba he lusts after her he inquires after her he brings her to himself he takes advantage of her then he tries to get her husband to cover it up unknowingly that doesn’t work so he has him killed and he takes Bathsheba to himself And we’re told at the end of 2 Samuel 11 that the thing David had done displeased the Lord. But God did not just leave David in that dark place. He sent Nathan the prophet to him, and the word of God was spoken to David. And Nathan tells the story of the rich man who had many, many things, and the poor man who had one little lamb. But the rich man wasn’t satisfied with what he had, and so he stole from the poor man to satisfy his own desires. And David, rightly, is indignant. He’s angry at that man. And the prophet Nathan speaks the word of God to David and says, You are that man. You are the man who deserves to die, David. King, anointed of the Lord, you deserve to die.

And David has an option there. He’s the king. He’s the supreme judge. He could do what kings often did in Israel and say, get this prophet out of my sight. Kill him. Throw him in a well. Get him out of here. I don’t want to listen. He could try to keep hiding his sin. Or he could do what he did and say, I have sinned against the Lord. We have that same option anytime God, in his gracious mercy, reveals our sin to us. Whether it’s like David and someone lovingly comes and confronts us with our sin. Or God just mercifully as we’re reading his word or as we hear a sermon opens up to us. This is an area that needs change. This is an area where you fall short and you’re walking in sin. God mercifully confronts us. And we have the option in that instance whether to keep hiding in the darkness or to walk in the light as he is in the light. 1 John 1.

How do you do that? How? When we know that God is holy and we are not, how do you walk towards him? How do you pray when you’ve sinned? That’s what David shows us here in Psalm 51. Psalm 51, the heading gives us the setting. To the choir master, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. And in the first four verses here, we’re going to see that the first step in praying when you’ve sinned is to repent. To repent of your sins, to agree with God about what your sin is. And to have a change of mind, that’s literally what repent means, is a change of mind where you agree with God about what you’ve done, and you ask him for your forgiveness.